Hope this belongs in here. What do you recommend for editing software. I don't do anything particularly fancy, mostly single track but a little bit more sometimes - up to say 3 track, cutting bits in and out. I would like reasonable processing / effects capability - again nothing special I am not trying to create electonic music, just render the music we play as accurately and beautifully as possible.

To date I have been using the wrong tools for sure. Adobe Premier (a video editor) to mix audio tracks and Sound Forge XP 4.5 to do basic effects.

My end goal is good quality CD's of 'unplugged' music.

What do you recomend?

Andrew

Kristal Audio is a freeware multitrack editor with basic process/effect features. You can download and test it to see if it is good for your needs.

Thanks for this. I've never heard of Krystal AE before - but I've already dl'd it and look forward to putting it through its paces.

A lot of people use Audacity as well, which is open-source.

You are welcome. Yeah, Kristal AE and Audacity are very popular, and complement each other in some way.

I've been using CoolEdit Pro... but I'm going to try the Kristal, since my CoolEdit isn't exactly a legal copy.

Has anyone tried ProToolFree? from Digidesign.com? I need some edit device to get part of a song burned onto my CD, and I was thinking of trying that, though it seems to be alot to figure out until it's useful. Any recommendations for something simple?

Protools Free requires that you have Windows ME or earlier. If you have 2000 or XP, it won't run.

Likewise on Mac, it requires OS 9, and will not run in X. [Not sure about classic mode]

Since it was already bought and paid for, I use Nero 6 Ultra Edition. Though I use it primarily to edit video, and author and burn DVDs, it has also become my program of choice to burn CDs. One of the Nero suite's apps is Nero Wav Editor. I have not fully explored all that it can do, and I suspect it doesn't approach the features of the other programs recommended above. But I have used it for basic audio editing including cutting dead space from live recordings, adjusting volume levels, fades in & out, and reducing background clicks and hiss from old vinyl & tape recordings before burning them to CDs. It seems to have numerous other effects features which I just haven't played around with yet.

Just got back and was going to give this a whirl..but this line stopped me cold. What if you right click on the program, go to properties, click on the compatibility tab and select "run this program in compatibility mode for:" and then choose Windows 98/ME in the drop down menu and hit ok?

If I'm not mistaken, when I tried installing it [thinking I could do it this way] the installer actually refused to run because my system specs didn't match what it wanted.

This may have been for something else though; that was at least 2 years ago.

Kids, don't try this at home.

I was eager to try the fabled Protools. The setup program wouldn't run under XP, so I switched to Windows 98 Compatibilty and, yes, it installed. Then I set Protools.exe to Win98 compatibility as well. But when I ran it, it found a DAE Error and stopped. And XP won't uninstall it because apparently the uninstaller wants Win98 compatibility.

Time to find that restore point....

What was the exact DAE error?

It just said "DAE Error," no number or explanation of which program. Clicking OK stopped it from loading. It's gone, I just restored.

I bought Cool Edit 2000 way back before Adobe bought it and got the add in that lets you edit four tracks. The price as reasonable then, I'm accoustomed to it now, and I haven't exhausted it's capabilities. I don't know if I would buy it from Adobe since you can get Audacity for free.

Another good audio edting prog is Goldwave. Similar to audacity, I believe, but you have to pay a little fee for it.